In Auxiliaries^x, Modal auxiliaries^x

Miriam, The book is by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey Pullum. The capital letters in square brackets refer to a list of criteria on the preceding page concerning auxiliary verbs vs. modal auxiliaries. Here's the list: AUXILIARY PROPERTIES Primary verb negation. Subject-auxiliary inversion ...

I checked in a new book, "The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language", which is intended as a rival to Quirk. Following is an excerpt concerning "had better". I don't understand most of it, but presumably Pemmican & Miriam will. I was surprised to see that dropping the "had", as in, "You...

I was a bit confused myself in the beginning becuase I thought that modals were just can, could; may, might; will, would; must; shall, should. These verbs are the "classical" modals, but every verb that expresses/describes the modus of a full verb is a modal verb: I may go e.g. means I have...

Let's start with your first question. It seems you are wondering why the following wouldn't be correct: He doesn't know how to drive, but I wish he would know. This is simply a case of an incorrect choice of verb. The verb "know", as you pointed out, is a stative (non-action) verb. But the...

All of your sentences are correct. The choice of where to position the "maybe" is one of style rather than grammatical necessity. If style is what you'd like to improve on, I would suggest getting rid of the "was...maybe" structure altogether: He saw something that may have been a ghost. It...

Just change it into "I must go" - then it's easier to analyze: "go" here is the full verb that is in its infinitive and follows the modal auxiliary must - without to! I have to go: "have to" is the substitute form for "must", "go" again is the full verb in its infinitive. "Have to" here is a...